


Demand and Supply

by paralogism



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F, but otherwise settle for light nicomaki shenanigans, essentially maki solves all her problems with money, hopefully humorous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-21 03:47:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10677048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paralogism/pseuds/paralogism
Summary: Maki has a secret hobby which may or may not involve collecting pictures of her girlfriend.





	Demand and Supply

**Author's Note:**

> This is not what I was meant to be writing, but I wanted to do something for Maki’s birthday. So here we are!
> 
> Happy birthday, Maki!

The monitor of Maki’s computer was the only source of light in her dark bedroom, and she couldn’t stifle a yawn from having another late night. A glance at the bottom right of the screen revealed the time: 3:30am. What was such a bright, talented young girl doing awake instead of resting for school that day? The answer was simple.

She was collecting photos of Nico online and saving them to her hard drive.

Meticulously backed up both physically and to cloud storage, Maki’s collection of Nico pics was her secret pride and joy, with an emphasis on _secret_. It was something she was sure the others would never suspect, and damn did she want to keep it that way.

Tagged by date, location, situation and cuteness rating out of ten (slightly redundant, because Maki never gave a rating less than seven), archiving Nico’s cuteness was a full-time job for Maki. Hence why she found herself up in the middle of the night, trawling through every website and search engine for pictures of Nico that she might have missed.

She had many good pictures (her collection reached petabytes last week), but there was a problem.

‘It's not enough,’ Maki muttered to herself, squinting at the screen unhealthily. ‘I need more Nico-chan.’

Maki had now reached the point where she had collected _every_ picture of her girlfriend that there was on the internet. And scanned every magazine Nico featured in, clipped every newspaper article and recorded every program. She had cleared her backlog of Nico, which meant that the trickle of new photos could no longer satisfy her.

She had reached peak Nico, but she needed more than what was being produced. Her demand for Nico pictures outstripped supply. It was basic economics. So to correct this awful failure of the free market, Maki decided to take action.

Being a Nishikino, and like most other members of the _bourgeoisie_ , Maki knew this was an opportunity to finally put all her money to good use. If demand exceeded supply, all she had to do was increase supply to restore equilibrium!

With that thought in mind, Maki clicked onto the search bar, ignored the auto-fill prompts all containing the words _Nico Yazawa_ and _cute_ and typed in something very different instead.

 _How to hire paparazzi_.

* * *

 

Another afternoon practice session ended. As usual, Nico bounded straight over to Maki and glomped her briefly, before beaming up at her with a smile. Maki knew that this was code for “ _Hey, let’s spend the rest of the afternoon together, Maki-chan!”_ and it was something she was all too happy obliging.

Nico might have thought it unusual for Maki of all people to have a smile on her face as they exited the school and began walking to the park together. But it was good to see happy Maki emerge for once, unlike the grumpy or apathetic Maki the world usually saw. So instead of questioning it, Nico smiled as well, slipping her hand into Maki’s and humming contentedly at her girlfriend’s good mood.

Of course, Maki was only smiling at the prospect of gaining more candid Nico pictures for her collection. But Nico didn’t need to know that. As in, she _really_ didn’t need to know that.

But she wouldn’t. All Maki had to do was keep her cool and say ‘gross’ whenever she really meant ‘Nico-chan is so cute I’m about to hyperventilate’ and Nico would never suspect a thing – and certainly never suspect that Maki spent every other waking moment giddily looking at pictures of her. Then as soon as she got back home, Maki would be free to scream incoherently as she got her fix of Nico pictures.

As such, Maki had briefed the photographers she had hired in advance as to the places they usually visited, where would be the best angles to take their pictures and that bonuses would be paid if they caught Nico doing something _really_ cute. Maki had accounted for everything.

So they walked hand-in-hand to the park, stopping as they always did to purchase a crepe from a pop-up stall. All according to keikaku so far.

Also according to plan was watching Nico happily bite into her strawberry crepe. Watching her eyes light up as if she were only enjoying it for the first time, those perfectly white teeth nestled between those soft, pink lips, the kind of things that always made Maki wish _‘Damn, I wish I could take a photo of this without seeming weird_.’ But her wishes were now granted (or rather paid for).

Maki’s Nico-related thoughts were then interrupted by Nico. ‘Hey, Maki-chan…’

‘What’s wrong?’

‘I’ve got this weird feeling…’ Nico glanced around her surroundings with suspicion. ‘That we’re being watched!’

Maki couldn’t even see the photographer she knew was there, but Nico had already grabbed her by the wrist as she began sprinting.

Maki had accounted for everything.

But she hadn’t accounted for Nico.

The Nico who _was always prepared to escape from the paparazzi at a moment’s notice._

Oh.

She really should have thought of that, huh?

Even as she ran, Nico didn’t seem especially angry at having her time with Maki interrupted. She wasn’t even annoyed. In fact, she looked almost as if she might have been enjoying herself? ‘I guess everyone wants a piece of Nico-Nii now!’ she said in a sing-song, looking behind herself to grin at Maki. ‘We’ve really made it, Maki-chan!’

Okay, Nico was definitely enjoying herself. Maybe this plan had some unintended benefits, as Maki tried to refrain from smiling herself at seeing Nico look so exhilarated. That would definitely look good in a picture. No, a poster. Or a mural. Or maybe across an entire art gallery. Perhaps it was time to call in her father’s connections?

But whatever Maki was thinking to herself, Nico didn’t seem to notice, instead leading Maki through the dense Akihabara crowds before pulling her into a quiet alleyway, and hiding the both of them behind the side of a dumpster. ‘Made it!’ she gasped, exhausted from running. ‘All my practice finally paid off, huh?’

Maki had even less oxygen, and doubled over with her hands on her knees. If Nico’s idol career didn’t pan out, she could probably make a middle-distance runner or parkour specialist. That was evidenced when Maki looked up from her haunches, seeing a miraculously recovered Nico with a smirk on her face.

‘Get a grip, Maki-chan! Our afternoon isn’t over yet!’

In a flash, Nico retrieved two sets of trusty pink sunglasses and face masks from her bag, handing one of each to Maki as well. And just to add to the effect, Nico brought out her totally not poop looking hat for herself.

It was then that a question hit Maki. ‘Nico-chan, how many disguises do you carry?’

‘One for each member, of course.’

That response only raised more questions. ‘But then how do you fit your schoolwork in such a tiny bag?’

‘That’s a secret,’ Nico replied, winking before she brought the glasses to her face with a flourish.

It was a pity to Maki that Nico’s face was now mostly obscured. But there was something about Nico in incognito (incognico?) which was also cute enough for Maki to stare at and think of how wonderful the world was. Not that she’d ever say that to Nico, of course.

‘I don’t think those people are the kind to give up that easily,’ said Nico.

 _They’d better not with what I’m paying them_ , thought Maki.

‘So,’ Nico continued, ‘let’s go someplace else, shall we?’

* * *

 

It was only when they reached halfway that Maki realised “someplace else” meant Nico’s apartment. Not that she minded, it was becoming something of a ritual between them now.

Being on the outskirts of Akihabara, the pedestrian traffic faded steadily as the two made their way on foot. Nico maintained a steady vigil, taking glances around every corner and scanning likely ambush points. Maki couldn’t help but think this was having the opposite effect and making them look even more conspicuous. But that didn’t mean that she would let go of Nico’s hand.

Whatever the case, she had her trusty disguise on, and it was infallible. Sure, only her face and eyes were covered, which mainly left her hair exposed. But surely red-haired girls were common in... oh.

Maki then realised that it was actually obvious to anyone with functioning eyesight that the two conspicuous people were Nico and Maki.

She also realised that going to Nico’s apartment was usual enough to have been marked on the route Maki had supplied. And just when Nico had turned her head again to check the blind spot, there he was.

Out in the open with nowhere to hide, there was no escaping the camera’s lens as it was raised to meet its target.

In that split-second, Maki knew, just _knew_ that Nico was about to do something in response to finally getting caught on film. But seeing Nico scream ‘Love Nico Attack!’ before launching a flying kick at the photographer was not quite what Maki expected.

‘Ow!’ the man yelled in pain, before something more pressing came to mind as he heard a shattering noise beneath him. ‘My camera!’

Lying on the ground was what once would have been a nice DSLR, now in two separate pieces with a chunk of glass missing from the lens. Maki winced at the sight.

Nico, however, was less empathetic. ‘Serves you right for trying to spy on Nico-Nii,’ she huffed.

‘But she’s the one who hired me in the first place!’ the photographer shouted, pointing squarely at Maki.

Nico looked at the man, then back at Maki with a face of utter bewilderment. ‘What do you-‘

‘Don’t worry,’ Maki intervened between them, ‘I’ll pay for your camera, and a bit extra. Okay?’

‘You’d better,’ grumbled the photographer, before he began to slink away back towards the city. He still got paid, so whatever.

Nico was only left with Maki for an explanation. ‘Maki-chan?’

‘Nico-chan!’ Maki shouted, bowing her head. ‘I’m really sorry!’

As she listened to Maki’s explanations and apologies for creating unnecessary trouble, Nico’s expression gradually turned from bewilderment to a gentle smile, as she placed an arm around Maki’s shoulders. ‘Awww, Maki-chan!’ Nico said, swiftly retrieving her phone from the pocket of her blazer. ‘If you just want pictures of Nico-Nii, all you have to do is ask!’

In the time it took for Nico to strike her pose, the photo was already taken. Sadly, Maki didn’t have quite the same reaction time, only looking at the camera in surprise, her mouth in a perfect “o”. Her disguise outfit still on (in fact, how did Nico whip off her glasses, hat and mask in that time?) meant that Maki looked, well, ridiculous.

Nico spent a solid minute laughing at Maki’s less than photogenic effort before tapping at her phone, sending a copy of the picture to Maki’s. For all her scowling as she looked at her phone, Maki was glad that it was a good photo of Nico at least. Photoshop could take care of the rest.

But it wasn’t enough for Maki to not feel that she had gone too far with her plan. She had only wanted cute Nico pictures, not a potential assault case. And however Nico reacted, it was only because Maki set it all up in the first place. ‘I’m really sorry, Nico-chan. I shouldn’t have done what I did.’

‘It’s fine,’ said Nico, grinning in response. ‘It was sort of fun, wasn’t it?’

Maki reflected for a moment before nodding meekly in agreement. Whatever else it might have been, it certainly hadn’t been a boring afternoon.

‘And we finally got some actual practice in evading the press,’ Nico continued. ‘Which might come in handy one day, because Nico-Nii will never leave Maki-chan’s side. Even when she becomes the Number One Idol in the Universe.’

Although Maki still didn’t agree with Nico’s rationalization, whatever response she had died from hearing Nico say those words and mean them.

As for Nico, it was now time to return to teasing Maki as she made a generous wink. ‘Also, I’ll be sure to take plenty more pictures of myself if you want them that much.’

‘I-It’s not like…’ Maki began out of habit, before she trailed off completely. Screw it. She had the cutest, most amazing girlfriend in the world. She may as well admit it to herself for once. ‘Alright, then.’ And since she got that invitation, Maki realized that there wasn’t anything to lose by asking another question.

‘Even lewd ones, then?’

‘What?! No!’ Nico yelled, blushing furiously. What was Maki thinking?! But at the look of disappointment Maki made, like a child discovering that Santa isn’t real, Nico found herself sighing.

‘Maybe on your birthday, alright?’


End file.
